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About North Douglas herald. (Drain Or) 2023-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 2023)
Business Matters Cottage Grove Recall Fails to get enough signatures for Ballot A petition to recall a Cottage Grove city council member fell short of the required number of valid signatures to make it on the ballot. Mike Borke, the chief petitioner, hoped to recall three Cottage Grove city council members: Chalice Savage, Jon Stinnett and Mike Fleck. Fleck’s petition did make it to the signature verification stage. The Lane County elections office was only able to verify that 463 signatures were from eligible registered voters. Petitioners needed at least 654, or 15% of the total number of city votes cast in the last election. Borke said he plans to use the lessons he’s learned to put initiatives on the ballot instead. He said specifically, he disagreed with how the city council’s approached homelessness. He said their current approach has led to many people experiencing homelessness trespassing onto private property. He said the initiatives would ban open drug use, camping during the daytime, and require city council members to run in wards, instead of city-wide. Business Improvement Grant Reedsport Main Street Program Round Four Deadline: December 31, 2023 Through the Reedsport Main Street installed planters, applied new paint, created Program, the City of Reedsport created the murals, replaced windows, and more. Business Improvement Grant to assist with 2. Be realistic about what you can complete building renovation projects. This program in six months. The more complicated offers matching grants up to $2,500 for your project, the greater the chance that the structural or cosmetic improvement of you will run into unexpected challenges. Take into account the season and weather businesses in Reedsport. Grants to businesses within the Urban when planning projects. Any projects Renewal District are funded by the Urban that you fail to complete may hurt your Renewal Agency. The amount of grants chances of receiving a grant in the future. available to businesses outside the URD are 3. Create a budget for your project. Be dependent on funds raised through donations. careful not to underestimate your costs. If The first grant cycle launced April 15, you complete your project over budget, the 2015. The grant amount requested cannot Business Improvement Grant will not award total more than 50% of the total project additional funds to cover the extra amount. cost. In-kind contributions such as labor 4. Prepare photos of the existing can count towards the match. Projects that area and drawings or plans for the are complete under budget will receive the proposed changes that you would amount needed to cover the actual costs, like to make. Show the visual impact. with the remaining funds cycling back 5. If you do not own your business’s into the grant program in order to benefit property, make sure the property owner more businesses throughout Reedsport. agrees to your project and grant application. All projects must be completed six 6. Provide proof of liability insurance on the months from the time that the grant is property. You can find more online at: awarded. Extensions may be given under http://www.reedsportmainstreet.com/ certain circumstances. Interested in Applying for a Grant? or at Reedsport Main Street Program, 1. Think about what visual improvements City of Reedsport, 451 Winchester Ave, can be made to your business. Previous Reedsport, OR 97467, mainstreet@cityofree grant recipients have made new signs, dsport.org, 541-271-3603 ext. 1008. December 2023 Page 11 Sandy’s Country Cabin Coffee Continued from front Page What a great idea to have this place, convenient with a laundry-mat. A clean and comfy spot for doing laundry, definitely a town convenience. Ernie and Sandy have hit on a solid business plan that seems to be really working in the year and half since opening. I said that Sandy’s cooking has a reputa- tion and that is due to her work before this at the La Pinata restaurant also here in Drain. Her story here began in 1974 when she moved to Drain. Having worked in food industry for some time, in 2001 she started working La Pinata and it was there she met Ernie Malchow, who was to become her husband. For a time they ran the Tin Lizzy Pizza which was popular and Sandy was building a reputation and popularity for her wares. By coinci- dence they had a small laundrymat as well. The laundrymat was rundown and old and they were glad to leave it and buy into the La Pinata in 2015. Now for the next 6 or 7 years they built a following for her spectacular cooking and they built a solid restaurant business known for miles. Then came the pandemic. Which as it turned out “didn’t hurt as much as we thought it would,” said Ernie. The restaurant had already built up a “call in for to go meals” business previously, and that meant they could pivot to all pickup meals easily and with virtually no staff. The actual “closed” time they used to do some remod- eling and improvements. No, it wasn’t the pandemic that dealt them in, but afterwards it was a different story. “After the pandemic,” said Sandy, “we just could not get any help. Nobody wants to work, it’s just crazy.” It was then that Sandy and Ernie started looking for a new and bet- ter way to do their business. They were able to sell La Pinata and start the new enterprise and once they started working on the new building, Sandy realized it was just to big to do what she wanted. Having owned a laundrymat and remembering how well it served the community, they were only considering it since having so much trouble keeping up the previous building and equip- ment. Thinking the cost was going to be to high, Ernie stumbled onto an equipment deal that, “I just couldnt pass up.” Nice newer equipment with reasonable mainte- nance was now in a comfortable and clean, well lit, quiet atmo- sphere. “It’s a perfect setting and people love it, “ Sandy ex- claims. ”They like it and even clean up after themselves, I have actually seen custom- ers pick up the mop and start cleaning. People appreciate a clean place. My husband designed it & just I love it.” When you talk to Sandy she gets pretty excited about the variety in her menu and she is always keen to add items whenever she can. She went on to say her , “favorite thing is when people are so happy to get their coffee and appreciative that we are here.” When asked what the future hold’s for her, “ maybe someday retiring and trav- eling with my Hubby”. I asked her if she had any last thoughts and she smiled and said “If you have a Dream – go for it!” Country Coffee & Laundry, 438 “B” Ave HWY 38, Drain Oregon. Its a quick stop that’s well worth it. Federal Energy Regulatory Commissions Approves Pipeline S tory by Rusty Savage Federal regulators on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023, approved the expansion of a natural gas pipeline owned by TC Energy in the Pacific Northwest over the protest of environmental groups and top West Coast officials. The pipeline project, known as GTN Xpress, belongs to TC Energy of Calgary, Canada. This is the same company behind the now-abandoned Keystone XL crude oil pipeline and who owns the Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline which exploded in Strasburg, Virginia, in July and its existing Keystone pipeline spilled nearly 600,000 gallons of bitumen oil in Kansas last December. The GTN Xpress project, aims to expand the capacity of the Gas Transmission Northwest pipeline, which runs through Idaho, Washington and Oregon, by about 150 million cubic feet (4.2 million cubic meters) of natural gas per day. The company said the project is necessary to meet consumer demand and welcomed the decision in an emailed statement. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the project in a vote on October 19, 2023. TC Energy plans to modify three compressor stations along the pipeline running through Kootenai County, Idaho, Walla Walla County, Washington; and Sherman County, Oregon. Compressor stations help maintain the pressure and flow of gas over long distances in a pipeline. This In Spite of Opposition from Top Officials in 2 States and Environmentalists modification is to increase the flow of gas, increasing the capacity. The 1,377-mile (2,216-kilometer) pipeline runs from the Canadian border through a corner of Idaho and into Washington state and Oregon, connecting with a pipeline going into California. Idaho’s Republican governor and Congress members have supported the project and said that imposing other states’ climate policies would be “misguided.” Oregon, along with Washington and California, have passed laws requiring utilities to transition to 100% clean electricity sources by 2040 and 2045, respectively. After the FERC vote, U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon spoke harshly against the federal government’s decision to expand the natural gas pipeline in the Northwest. Merkley says the expansion will be “like adding 644 thousand gas powered cars to the road every year”. Washington Governor Jay Inslee also opposed the move, saying the decision to allow more natural gas to be burned reduces the impacts of climate change reduction efforts. Governor Inslee and California’s Attorney General condemned the decision, Inslee saying “the fight is not over”. U.S. Senators from Washington and Oregon described the project as “incompatible with our climate laws” in a letter to the energy agency. “GTN Xpress represents a significant expansion of methane gas infrastructure at a time when California, Oregon, and Washington are moving away from fossil fuels,” the senators said.. The attorneys general of all three states, cited the energy agency’s draft environmental impact statement for the project and that it would result in more than 3.47 million metric tons of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions per year for at least the next three decades.” The agency’s final environmental assessment issued last November revised that number down to about half, in calculations contested by environmental groups. This is partly because some of the project’s gas would be delivered to a Canadian natural gas producer, Tourmaline. The assessment said it wasn’t clear what the end use of the gas delivered to Tourmaline would be, leading it to conclude that the company’s downstream emissions, stemming from consumers, weren’t “reasonably foreseeable.” The energy agency’s chairman, Willie Phillips, reiterated its stance after Thursday’s vote. “There was no evidence presented that this project would significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions,” he told reporters. “The commission determined that this project was needed and therefore we support its approval.” In its final assessment, the FERC also said the compressor stations were in non- forested areas with low to moderate fire hazard and concluded the project “would result in limited adverse impacts on the environment.” “Most adverse environmental impacts would be temporary or short-term,” the federal agency said. The agency did recommend specific steps, such as requiring the training its personnel and contractors on environmental mitigation measures before any construction begins. Opposing Environmentalists and officials, unfazed, are rejecting the companies premise and have also expressed concern about TC Energy’s overall safety record. In a statement, Audrey Leonard, staff attorney for environmental nonprofit Columbia Riverkeeper, said it represented a “rubber stamp of unnecessary fracked gas in the Northwest” and accused the energy agency of failing to listen to U.S. senators, governors, state attorneys general, tribes and members of the public. Leonard said potential spills and explosions on the pipeline, which was built in the 1960s, would not only harm the environment but also present a heightened wildfire risk in the arid regions it passes through. “An explosion of that level in eastern Washington or eastern Oregon would be catastrophic,” she said. Leonard said Columbia Riverkeeper will appeal the federal regulators’ decision and submit a petition for a rehearing.
